A Yank in King Arthur's Court: A Trip to London

Happy Halloween from England! This past week was half-term, which meant that children throughout England were off from school for the week.

The kids aren’t the only ones that get a break. Because the majority of our work is done in primary schools Maddie, Pat and myself pretty much had the week to do what we wanted. Due to the fact that the uni boys had a game on Wednesday, we were a bit limited on where we could travel for the week.

After throwing around a couple of ideas we decided a trip to London would be our best bet. I had been in the country for two months and thought it was only fitting that I finally check out the capital, home to Big Ben, the Tower Bridge and of course Her Majesty the Queen.

Before we headed off to London though there was an important sporting event taking place in Manchester. Derby Day was upon us. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “Derby Day” is just another phrase for a rivalry game when two local teams face off against each other. For example when my New York Jets take on the New York Giants on Christmas Eve this year (and win) that would be considered “Derby Day” in England. Manchester’s two teams, City and United, also just happen to be two of best teams in the Premiership this year, making the game that much more exciting. As I have stated before on this blog I was torn on whom to root for this year. I decided that I should make up my mind before Sundays game. After much deliberation I chose to support City, strongly due to their striker Mario Balotelli.

Almost as if wanted to prove I had made the right decision, the Saturday before the United-City match news broke that Balotelli almost set his house on fire by lighting a firework off inside his bathroom. Oh by the way, weeks prior Balotelli had agreed to be the face of firework safety. You can’t make this stuff up. The fun wasn’t over there. Balotelli scored the first goal of the game and went on to score another goal and City won the game 6-1. Yes, City beat mighty United six goals to one.

With that wonderful result fresh in our minds Pat and I headed down to London for two nights. We had booked a hostel just east of our train station by the name of Clink78, a converted courthouse where the Clash actually stood trial. We dropped our bags off and immediately heading out to see what the city had to offer. With no idea of where exactly to go we decided to walk to Piccadilly Circus, which is essentially Times Square in London.

While walking through the city I had the added surprise of seeing an NFL football jersey every five minutes. With the Tampa Bay-Chicago football game having taken place at nearby Wembley Stadium it seemed that after the game the fans had migrated back into the city center. This became very evident when we headed to a sports bar for some pints and grub. Thinking we might get lucky and be able to catch some American football games we headed over to “Sport” bar and restaurant. Inside we found people wearing every conceivable NFL jersey you can think of.

The next day we did all the typical tourist attractions. Some of the highlights include:
-Seeing Big Ben in person. It is absolutely massive and quite impressive.
-The National Portrait Gallery. Got to check out portraits taken of famous people from England.

-The Ice Bar. Owned by the same people who run the Ice Hotel in Sweden. The entire bar is made of ice shipped in from Sweden, even the glasses which the drinks are served in.

-The Tower of London. So much bloody, interesting history that it almost made learning fun. Almost.

For more on the trip check out the video following our journey:

After coming back on Tuesday night for training with the university guys Wednesday was game day. We were off to Sheffield to take on Sheffield Unviersity. The guys came out strong and got a nice 16-4 win.

The real fun was that night. Every Wednesday night the Athletic Union (AU) holds a party at Tiger Tiger, a club in Manchester. This particular Wednesday was considered the welcome party for the new “freshers” on both the men’s and women’s team. The theme for the night was cops and robbers. Unfortunately Pat and I couldn’t get costumes in time. The guys, however, were well prepared. I’ll leave you with a photo that sufficiently describes the night: